, 2h12Directed byAndrzej WajdaOriginGermanGenresDramaThemesFilms about sexuality, Political filmsActorsHanna Schygulla, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ralf Wolter, Daniel Olbrychski, Marie-Christine Barrault, Bernhard WickiRoles SchulzeRating68% The story takes place in a little German town at the border to Switzerland. The owner of the local fruit-and-vegetables shop has been called up. His shop has a key function for the town's supply situation. His customers know from World War I how rationing can make the owner of such a shop very rich if only he's egoistic enough to get corrupted by well-heeled customers who don't care whether their poorer country fellowmen's families starve. So when his wife Paulina starts to run the shop alone, her character is subsequently of public interest for all citizens who are concerned about the well-being of their families during the ongoing war. Paulina shares the fate of other soldier's wives who constantly face the fear her husband might return crippled, maimed or not at all. But because her husband's shop is highly important for the town's community, she gets somebody who can ease her working load. She is also luckier than other women for she is still young and attractive. So is the prisoner of war named Stanislaus who must serve her. She obviously finds him handsome and relishes that he has to obey all her commands. So she decides she doesn't need to be one of the lonesome wives anymore. When she seduces him she finds him very virile and they sometimes celebrate their love even literally in the open. Finally a town's official informs her that her evident bliss leads other women to doubts about her integrity. Still she doesn't let go of her love affair although the town official keeps on warning her that under the prevailing Nazi laws her adultery is punishable as "Rassenschande". Paulina keeps on putting the Polish POW in lethal danger until he is finally taken to court and sentenced to death. Paulina is imprisoned for two years. Decades later her son and her grandson visit the still existing little town in order to confront the man who warned Paulina repeatedly but in the end let her go down. The both of them are appalled when they realise he still lives in the very town where the citizens forced him to take action on Paulina and he doesn't hide.